


The glow of the cities below lead us back to the places that we never should have left

by thebatmandiaries



Series: DC one shots/tumblr prompts [12]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Everyone except for Jason and Lex appear in the last part of the story, Gen, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Jason-Centric, Post-Apocalypse, a bit of angst then fluff at the end, from a prompt generator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-08 21:43:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18903223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebatmandiaries/pseuds/thebatmandiaries
Summary: There is a universe in which Lex Luthor (with the help of a brainwashed Superman) destroyed life on earth. Now, with a ship patrolling outside of Earth, Jason Todd is given a mission to see if there is anything salvageable left in the wake of the destruction.





	The glow of the cities below lead us back to the places that we never should have left

**Author's Note:**

> Also, title from “Bishop’s Knife Trick” by Fall Out Boy.
> 
> Thanks, and leave a comment, let me know what you thought.

**_Word count:_ ** _ 1363 _

**_Genre:_ ** _ Crime _

**_Character:_ ** _ A soulless man _

**_Material:_ ** _ A ship _

**_Sentence:_ ** _ "You have my permission." _

**_Bonus:_ ** _ There seems to be no one left on the planet. _

 

* * *

 

“You have my permission.” Jason said to the man in front of him. “You do not need anyone else’s.” 

 

The ship rumbled underneath him, and he rolled his eyes behind his hood as the lackey walks away. The people who had been left had been on the ship. And the past few months had been rough for everyone. People had lost entire families, separated forever because of the Incident with Lex Corp. 

 

_ The Incident _ as it was dubbed, had wiped out most of the population. Everyone was gone, except for the people who had been taken and put on the ships. Jason didn’t know if it was random, or what Lex’s goal was, or why he had even done it. 

 

“Red hood my boy, nice to see you out and about.” Lex’s oily voice had said, almost startling him as he whipped around.

 

“I’m not your boy, Lex.” Jason feels like slamming his fist into that smug assholes face.

 

“My apologies,” Lex said, voice dripping with fake sincerity. 

 

“Mmhm, I need to go, it’s almost training time.” Jason said, eager to leave Lex. 

 

“Come to my office later, I have a business to discuss.” Lex said, starting to walk to where Mercy was standing.

 

Jason ignored him and walked to the room designated as “gym”. It was barely the size of a one bedroom apartment.  _ Yet another thing I hate about this place.  _

 

He walked into the “gym” and proceeded to start training. 

 

* * *

 

Jason looked at Lex. “You want me to do  _ what _ ?” 

 

“A ground mission. I want to see what is left and/or if there was anyone who survived.” Lex said, shuffling papers.

 

“Why?” Jason shifted his weight to his other foot. “What is in this for you?”

 

“Just curiosity.” 

 

“Want to see if there wasn’t anything you destroyed that can still be salvaged, then?” Jason snarked.

 

“Still your tongue, boy, I may like you more than most, but I’m not above getting rid of insubordinate crew members.” Lex frowned.

 

“Of course.” Jason said, his face void of emotion. “I expect nothing less from you.’

 

Lex ignored the passive-aggressive tone and continued on with the mission. “Take three or four people with you. Make it a team of five.” 

 

“Alright captain, see you tomorrow.”

 

“Mmhmm.” Lex said, looking back to the papers he was reading.

 

Jason held in his disgust and walked away.

 

_ He had a mission to prepare for. _

 

* * *

 

It was a barren wasteland. The wind whipped around the dust, which had covered everything. The buildings crumbled underneath the broken infrastructure. It was eerily silent, with no signs of life.

 

Jason looked at his team of four other people, and signaled them to fan out, “Lex wants us to find if there’s anything salvageable to bring back to the ship, got it?” 

 

“Yes, commander.” The others replied. 

 

“Make sure to keep your oxygen tank on and don't, under any circumstances, touch anything with your full suit on that you have now.” he looked at the landscape around them. “We have no idea how toxic or contagious the air is here. Among anything else.” 

 

Everyone nodded, and Jason took his partner to scope with him. The partner looked around and sighed. “How long is he going to hold on to this hope anyone survived?”

 

“You know Lex, he is anything but hopeful.” Jason muttered, walking into the crumbled remains of a house.

 

He was happy this was the one time they wouldn’t be able to here the coms from where they were, due to no signals or connections available here. So they were free to bad talk Lex to their heart's content.

 

“Yeah, hopeful is probably not the right word.” she said. 

 

Jason clenched his fist. “He has us looking for life when he destroyed everything. He took away everyone’s family and friends, and expects us to sit at his feet giving praise for anything he does.” 

 

“What can you do?” she muttered. “He has us and he knows it. And I, for one, want to live.” 

 

“But at what cost.” Jason muttered, looking through the dust-covered object left at the abandoned house. “We may be surviving, but we aren’t living.” 

 

“It’s not like we can do anything, so let’s focus on the mission.” she said, picking up a dirty dish that still held some moldy food. Thankfully, they couldn’t smell it, due to their sealed suits. 

 

“That's disgusting.” Jason muttered. 

 

“Yeah. I guess they just didn’t have time.” she said, sadly putting the plate where she found it. “I don’t see anything, so want to call it quits?”  

 

“Luthor expects us to be here for the rest of the day.” he says, walking to the next house. 

 

She stopped in her tracks. “How are we supposed to eat? Drink? We can’t open our suits in case of contamination.” 

 

“I know.” he ground out. “We’ll just have wait until sunset.”

 

“Absolutely ridicoulous.” She shook her head. 

 

Many hours later, after much searching to no avail, Jason felt faint. The headaches had been frequent all day, with black spots in his vision. He heard weird voices and thought he saw the rest of the Batclan, but it might have had something to do with the fact that Lex dropped him close to the Manor, in Gotham. 

 

_ A sick joke, I’m sure. _

 

They got the message to board the ship, but before that, he saw Lex.

“Luthor, sir, what are you doing here?” one of the team members said.

 

“Tying up loose ends.” he said, before shooting all three in the head.

 

Jason stood in shock and exchanged glances with his partner. They were about to run when- “Stop.”

 

They froze in place. They couldn’t move. “What did you do.” He hissed.

 

“Made sure you couldn’t run away when I didn’t want you too.” Lex said, loading the gun again. “It’s a shame, because you really were the best out of everyone.”

 

Jason scoffed. “Whatever helps you sleep at night Lex. But if you want to kill me, kill me.” 

 

Lex smiled. “With pleasure.” He pulled the trigger and everything went black.

 

* * *

 

Jason gasped and abruptly sat up. He was sweating buckets, and he could feel his clothes stick to him. “What the hell…” he said, looking around.

 

He was in the Batcave. The familiar interior of the Dinosaur and giant penny gave him a midicum of comfort. He turned and saw Bruce on his computer. 

 

“Bruce? Where the-” he was interuptedf by Bruce spinning his chair over to him.

 

“Jason? Are you alright? You got hit by Scarecrow’s gas really hard.” Bruce said, his voice hinting at some concern.

 

“...I’m fine.” he said, frowning. 

 

_ It had all seemed so real _ . He thought to himself.  _ Everything that happened felt so life-like and like it actually happened. _

 

“You sure? You took a pretty big dose.” Bruce looked at the time. “It’s been three days.”

 

His eyes bugged out. “I’ve been out three days?”

 

“Yeah, we were worried you wouldn’t be waking up.” 

 

“Well, I’m fine now, so I’m going to leave.” He got up and started putting on his jacket, ignoring his stiff muscles.

 

“Don’t you dare leave this cave young man.” A voice rang out.

 

Jason looked to Leslie, and frowned but stay put. He knew he’d have hell to pay if he left without letting her check him over.

 

“Fine.” he grumbled. 

 

He let her look him over, and once she cleared him, he saw the rest of them walk in. 

 

“Jason! You’re awake.” Dick said, bounding over to hug him.

 

“Glad you’re not dead, again.” Tim said, before getting pulled into the group hug by Dick.

 

Damian said nothing but a “Tt.” before being pulled into the hug, along with Cass appearing out of nowhere. Dick glared at Bruce, who reluctantly joined.

 

He'll admit (in the privacy of his own mind.) that he didn’t exactly hate it, and was glad everything was just a fear-induced nightmare.

 

But he’ll never say that out loud. 

 

After all, he needs to keep  _ some _ things to himself.


End file.
